Artificial intelligence opens the door to new ways to generate and enjoy content and experiences in the fields of culture and tourism

The White Paper on Artificial Intelligence applied to the Cultural and Experience-based Industry sector notes the prominent role that festivals and other cultural activities, tourism experiences or sporting events can have as test environments for powerhouse projects for introducing AI in this sector, as well as public-private innovation and the training of talent, in a context where it is anticipated that the application of this technology will open the door to different ways of generating or enjoying new content, formats and experiences.

The document, presented recently in Barcelona by the Centre of Innovation for Data tech and Artificial Intelligence (CIDAI), includes a list of recommendations to contribute to responding to the challenges of the sector in Catalonia and accelerating the uptake of artificial intelligence.

‘In Catalonia, we have an environment that’s perfect for standing out in the development of artificial intelligence technology solutions in the cultural and experience-based industries. We have a strong ecosystem of research centres and companies specialising in AI and a great network of cultural sector companies and entities. If we bring them together, we can create innovative projects that will help with the digital transformation of the sector’, says Dani Marco, the Government of Catalonia’s Director General of Innovation and Digital Economy.

‘This paper will be very useful for us to see where we need to go, how we need to work, how we need to explain it and which lines have to be started up’, points out Marisol López, the Government of Catalonia’s Director General of Innovation and Digital Culture in the Ministry of Culture. She highlights that the link between the cultural and technology fields generates ‘a kind of transforming effect’ that ‘expands universes’ and ‘is truly interesting’.

‘At the Catalan Audiovisual Cluster, we believe that the Catalan audiovisual industry can grow and become consolidated if we adopt new technologies. Artificial intelligence is a key technology in this strategy because it helps us to be more efficient and, therefore, more competitive, and because it enables us to get to know our audiences better’, notes Miquel Rutllant, the managing director of Grupo Lavinia and chairman of the Catalan Audiovisual Cluster.

As he highlighted during the round table to present the white paper, ‘Catalonia has been and is an international benchmark for its creativity in cultural works and tourism experiences. Looking at the 21^st century, and to consolidate this position in the world, it has the challenge of taking risks and investing in the development of new technologies aimed at creating, producing, distributing, consuming and learning about cultural content and other experience products’, says Xavier Cubeles, a specialist in culture and tourism from Eurecat’s Consultancy Department.

In the words of Joan Mas, the director of the CIDAI and Eurecat’s Digital Division, ‘in its mission to bring technological innovation in AI and data to the different areas of the Catalan economy, the CIDAI, thanks to the creation of this white paper, has brought together for the first time companies from the creative and experience-based industries, administration and technologists to address the future challenges that AI poses for this sector’.

The scope of the study ‘has been focused on the activities of generation, distribution and consumption of content and experiences, as well as the analysis and extraction of information. For each of these activities, we’ve identified benchmark projects in the cultural and experience-based industries and benefits of using data technologies and AI to improve the value proposition of organisations in the sector’, explains Marco Orellana, the manager of the CIDAI. In his opinion, at the moment, ‘if we want to be competitive, we no longer have to ask how AI can help us, but rather what we are using AI for and how we can get these technologies to perform better’.

The paper detects the need to promote the creation of a sectoral committee for the cultural and experience-based industries so the sector can apply the improvements recommended by the experts who make up the idea lab who have taken part in preparing the study, and also so it can benefit from the opportunities it could obtain from artificial intelligence in terms of generating content and new experiences and their distribution and consumption, as well as in terms of the analysis and extraction of information from the data available, guaranteeing their anonymisation.

Among the recommendations for the adoption of artificial intelligence that would have a major impact for the Catalan cultural and experience-based industries ecosystem, it was underlined that the public sector will act as a facilitator to contribute to public-private innovation through actions that will promote the development of new initiatives and access to funding. At the same time, emphasis is placed on the need for both companies and organisations in the sector to define specific strategies in artificial intelligence and to harness and train talent in technology subjects and a combination of technological and humanistic skills.

Moreover, it is recommended to facilitate the creation of powerhouse projects, taking advantage of events organised in the region such as, for example, festivals or sporting events, so that they turn into test environments where the challenges of applying AI in the sector can be addressed, such as the fragmentation of data and data interoperability or intellectual property.

The cultural and experience-based industry sector in Catalonia

Using the 2018 figures as reference, the area of culture in Catalonia includes a total of 39,558 companies and 112,567 workers, with an annual turnover of 12.442 billion euros and a gross added value of 4.670 billion euros, accounting for 5.1 per cent of the Catalan GDP and 3 per cent of employment.

In addition to these figures, there are also the activities associated with tourism experience, a sector that, also using the 2018 data as reference, includes 91,678 companies, employing 402,700 people and a total turnover of 27.006 billion euros, accounting for 11 per cent of the Catalan GDP in 2018.

The CIDAI is coordinated by Eurecat and is made up of the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory, Barcelona City Council, the BSC, the CVC, i2CAT, IDEAI-UPC and the companies NTT DATA, Microsoft, the SDG Group and SAP.